Interview with Debie Kalousek, Mainstreet

Where are you from? Ohio – Cleveland. Born there. I have lived in Cleveland, Dayton, St. Louis and now my family is in Atlanta.

How did you end up in Hampton? My husband's company purchased geocoating (AGC) and we've been here 10 years in December.

Do you like it here? Love it! Why? Hampton is by far the smallest place I've ever lived. You know your neighbors, its easy to get involved. Unless you are a teenager there is lots to do. I like the sense of community. I live in the old Stewart house. We used to be on the Christmas tour for the house – the tour has been gone a while now. It takes a lot of work to get ready for that – but it was enjoyable.

Tell us a little about your family. I have two seniors this year – a son in college at Miami University in Ohio, and a daughter in high school. My husband is in Minnesota working and home weekends.

What are your hobbies/passions/pursuits outside of family? I knit in the winter. I golf in the summer (hubby says I drink with a club in my hand). I like to keep busy. We've done a lot of work on our house and we have several projects going – there's always something at the house to be done.

Civically – I'm involved with the auditorium. I don't have the sentimental attachment, but I do love that place. I can't imagine not being able to have band concerts, plays, etc. It would be nice to open it up for other things – and get a lot of use out of it. The boiler system needs to be addressed. If the school district doesn't need to use the other rooms – they could be closed and use them only for things like dressing rooms and small meetings occasionally.

Mainstreet what is it? An economic development organization based in historic preservation. How does that translate to Hampton? Originally national Mainstreet was started to help the urban downtown areas. When they brought Mainstreet to Iowa, we are not an urban state. The rural Mainstreet program was started in Iowa. When we started here, over 50% of downtown was vacant. It was a community effort to revitalize downtown and become the center of the community . In the last 7 years we've kept up on the vacancies – and eliminated most of them. Mainstreet is only downtown – we do help on occasion with some other things.

What do you do there? I am the program director. Its a volunteer driven organization. I organize volunteers to do the work. We run on a four point approach. Design, organization, promotion and business improvement. Within those 4 points, we have a committee for each. We do things like street scape, national retail consultant, ham jam event – our goal is to help all businesses downtown. We are not membership driven – it doesn't matter what kind of business you have – as long as you are downtown. We do get sponsors for events, our goal is not to make money from an event – but for the businesses to benefit from the event.

How can you assist businesses downtown? We are part of Mainstreet Iowa and Department of Economic Development. By being a Mainstreet community we have available to us lots of free services. Architectural, business consultant, retail consultant, we can get you help. When there is grant money available we will gladly write a grant for you. We've got challenge grants for Movies America apartments – its an appropriation from HUD and we are one of 2 states that get that money. This money has generated enormous private investment!

We are not lacking housing downtown but we are lacking a mix – we need low to high of a mix. We want people living downtown! There should be no empty second floors – why not open up a retail space? Fix it up and rent it out to live in?

There are ordinances in place in the city that require landlords to keep their properties up to state code and safe. We need to have the city enforce these codes!

What kind of businesses do you think would be great for Hampton? A furniture store would be a great fit – a clothing store that caters to a market here in Hampton. Kelsey is carrying clothes for teens (including plus size) and is having phenomenal success. How about an art gallery and a framing business?

We work with an organization that you can prepare your business plan, submit a proposal and we help you get funding. It really comes down to planning. If you want to open a business, see Karen Mitchell and she'll help you write a business plan. Pappajohns has an entrepreneurial program. There are things available Mainstreet can get them lined up with and get them going. Sometimes it takes some legwork and research – but if you believe in it, we will get you rolling!

We appreciate the support that we get from the community for the events we do. We can always use more! I'm talking about attendance – come and see what we are doing!!!

twitter id: downtownhampton
facebook id: mainstreet hampton
email: mainstrethampton@mchsi.com (yes, its spelled wrong)
phone: 641-456-4129

events coming up: Ham Jam August 29th
hamjam.net

Hampton Today made possible by sponsors like:
Michelle Hartman – Tupperware –641-373-8880
Denise Passehl – Watkins – 641-580-4052
Franklin County Farmers Market 641-456-4811
Make a Splash Foundation jhobson@leslieklinelucas.com
Patrick Palmer – The Computer Guy – 641-420-1234
Seven Stars Restaurant – 641-456-5378
Debra Brown – Melaleuca - 641-458-1114